From: J. R. Raper [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
	Subject: Re: English professors and psychoanalysis
	
	Reuven,
	Isn't it true too that professors in schools based on the German university system often have (or had) a view of themselves as a bit like barons, with assistants and students in their fiefdom orbiting about them as satellites?  This gives them the sense they can rule their satellites as they like.  Some have a mature concern for others, some are ruthless.  And it is difficult for them give away their traditional powers in order to become modern.  
	 
	This at least was the sense I picked up teaching several years in a nation whose universities were much influenced by German archaeologists and other specialists. 
	 
	Jack 

		----- Original Message ----- 
		From: Reuven Tsur <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  
		To: [log in to unmask] 
		Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 1:46 AM
		Subject: Re: English professors and psychoanalysis

		Hello,
		I couldn't agree more than with Victoria Moessner's comment on the supportiveness of the Anglo-Saxon tradition. When I had the chutzpah to apply to the University of Sussex for a PhD in English, my English was very very poor, and a Canadian girl wrote all the correspondence for me. I was concerned that when they heard and read my real English they would kick me down the stairs. A colleague of mine told me that I need not be concerned. Both the French and the English are convinced that a bloody foreigner can never learn their language properly. But the difference is that the French are irritated whenever you make a mistake, whereas the English praise you whenever you say something correctly. Indeed, I received in Sussex all the support in the world, just as my colleague predicted, and here I am. My first three publications in English were published in America: two by Steven Bennett in Style, and one by Richard Ohman in College English. They never said that my English was quite good for a non-native speaker, nor were they waiting to find a typo, but simply corrected what needed to be corrected. By the way, it was a most formative experience to get a submission rejected by Richard Ohman. His comments and questions gave food for your thoughts for the next few years. 
		Reuven
		
		Apropos foreign accent. A guy applies for a visitors' visa to the US. "What is the purpose of your visit?" "I want to powlish my English". "Your English is Polish enough".
		
		Reuven Tsur
		The Cognitive Poetics Project
		Professor Emeritus
		Hebrew Literature
		Tel Aviv University
		http://www.tau.ac.il/~tsurxx
		On Mar 17, 2006, at 11:40 PM, Murray Schwartz wrote:
		
		



			From: Victoria Moessner [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
			Subject: Re: Fwd: Fwd: English professors and psychoanalysis
			
			Hello,
			I have read with interest the discussion of the "professor with a strong
			German accent in his English." I suspect that he is a man in his 50s or
			early 60s, one of the older generation with an identity problem. There
			is an old European tradition, and not only in Germany, of emphasizing
			negative criticism. It dies hard. It seemed to me that the older
			academics who were helping me were just waiting to find a typo, a
			possible mistake, on which to pounce. I cannot count in the last
			several years how often I have written (in German) to older German (I
			have to say male academics) that there are cultural differences, that in
			the Anglo-Saxon tradition, we include positive statements with negative
			ones, indeed, try to express our negative statements as positively as
			possible. I laughed to myself as a helpful retired professor of history
			(he corrected my transcriptions of Russian words into the German system
			for me) tried his best to do this and wrote: for a non-native speaker of
			German yours is quite good. I also think that being an attractive woman,
			and in my case an American still with some of the social traits that
			Europeans like to label "superficial," plays a part. I think women are
			more easily chased off by these techniques. Stubbornness, very polite
			and, on occasion, backhanded compliments (there is no German word for
			this) can prevail.
			Victoria Moessner
			Professor of German
			
			
			Norman Holland wrote:
			
			>
			>
			> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
			> From: larry Lyons <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
			> Date: Mar 16, 2006 4:53 PM
			> Subject: Re: Fwd: English professors and psychoanalysis
			> To: Discussion Group for Psychology and the Arts <[log in to unmask]
			> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
			>
			> This message was originally submitted by [log in to unmask]
			> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> (27 lines) ------------------
			>
			>
			> >
			> > If I had received this attitude from an American
			> > Professor, it would be less painful and insulting
			> > than getting it from a German professor who talks
			> > English with German accent!
			> >
			> > Monir.
			>
			>
			> Since you're going to have this cat again, you might
			> as well have some fun. Research everything your
			> professor has written. Then write a paper showing how
			> his writing exhibits classic symptoms of a typical
			> German anal/sadistic personality. Then, hand it in.
			> Since he won't read it, he will give you a C rather
			> than an F.
			>
			> Yours,
			> Larry
			> >
			>
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